How Much Is Your Water Bill as a Tenant in Melbourne?

DaHuntz on 11/11/2023 - 08:42
Last edited 11/11/2023 - 09:15

Hi all

We rent a unit on top of a fish and chip shop in a Melbourne suburb, and we think the water company may have incorrectly including the fish and chip shop usage in our bills.

Our bills were $100-$200/quarterly and now it's between $10-$20/quarterly which is what triggered my curiosity. We're a 2 people household, use dishwasher and our most recent bill show average daily usage of 67 litres. I never really knew how much the water bills should be as the previous place we rented has water bills included.

I want to make sure the water company really made a mistake by including the water usage of fish and chips in our bills.

So I'm just asking around how much your quarterly water bill is as a tenant in a standalone house or unit? Or how much your water usage charge is? I understand apartments usually have water usage included.

Once I've collected enough data, I'll be sure to contact the water company to investigate and remediate.

Home & Garden Water Supply

Comments

  • mapax on 11/11/2023 - 09:01

    understand apartments usually have water usage included.

    Not for me, nor most of the people I know that live in apartments.
    Most recent bill was $69.xx for the quarter. $9 sewer $60 water usage for 2 people.

    • DaHuntz on 11/11/2023 - 09:08

      Thanks for that, this sounds reasonable. Do uoi also know your average daily usage?

      • mapax on 11/11/2023 - 09:19
        +1

        I don’t remember the actual usage and don’t have the paper bill handy. I only remembered that because someone asked a similar question on here not long ago
        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/804008

  • samyall on 11/11/2023 - 09:08

    Firstly, what does your lease say about water? It should tell you if you are supposed to pay or not.

    Secondly, apartment buildings generally do not have individual metering for water so have a look around and see if you can find your meter and see if there is another for the fish and chip shop. If there is only one, you should probably talk to the landlord as you definitely shouldnt be on the hook to pay for water in that case.

    • DaHuntz on 11/11/2023 - 09:14
      +1

      Thanks, in our lease agreement we pay all utilities bills. There're 3 metres on the property for 3 separate units (one being fish and chips and two for the units on top).

      Our most recent bills seem to be correct now but will have to sort out the historical bills with the Water company.

  • Ocker on 11/11/2023 - 09:15
    +1

    Your bill will show the cost and volume of water usage so it should be easy to roughly estimate how much water you use vis-a-vis the volume billed.

  • jjjaar on 11/11/2023 - 09:50

    Our bills were $100-$200/quarterly and now it's between $10-$20/quarterly

    Is that just the usage element?

    Our old apartment was 200-300 quarterly, includes all the service fees etc. We also don’t have split metering so it’s all apartments usage divided by 20 so when families were living there, the bills were closer to 300, but when only singles, sometimes it was even below 200. (Yet somehow the water company manages to get away with charging 20x account fees etc… pretty stupid system.)

    Edit: Just checked, approx. $650/year is all the service charges, so only 40-140/qtr is actual usage.

  • soan papdi on 11/11/2023 - 12:14

    Dishwasher and washing machine will have a usage rating per run. Showers are roughly 9L/min, water saver showers might be lower. Add those up and you know if you’re being overcharged.

  • JIMB0 on 11/11/2023 - 13:29

    You only need to pay for water usage and that's only if your premisses has an individual meter. Check the serial number of the meter on your bill and see if it matches the one that your water comes from.

    Sometimes they mix it up and you get billed for someone else's meter. This usually goes unnoticed until there is a sudden change in consumption, usually due to extra/different people moving in.

  • 0FoxGiven on 11/11/2023 - 13:53

    When I used to rent in Melbourne in a region serviced by Yarra Water around 6 years ago, my overall bill used to be like $50-70 per year from memory.

    Because as a tenant I didn't have to pay supply costs, only usage. And Yarra Water used to give a credit of like $50 or $100 per year for some reason.

    $100-200 does sound high for a quarter to me if it were just supply costs. My costs per quarter are about $200ish now as a homeowner but the bulk of it is supply charges for Potable and recycled water. Also my household usage has also increased significantly with a larger family and larger water using applainces

    • JIMB0 on 11/11/2023 - 14:02

      Yarra Water used to give a credit of like $50 or $100 per year for some reason.

      That's because they'd been overcharging for the desal plant and had to give the money back. They gave everyone the same credit so renters came out way in front.

  • jm7 on 11/11/2023 - 15:04
    +1

    Unmetered utilities cannot be oncharged to tenants in Victoria. Sometimes levies can make the bills appear to have significant increases and decreases. Have a look at the breakdown on your bills.

  • avoidfullprice on 12/11/2023 - 09:30

    We're a 2 people household, use dishwasher and our most recent bill show average daily usage of 67 litres.

    That seems either incorrectly low or very efficient.

    My water bill comes with a guide on usage:

    Shower: 10L/min per person
    Toilet: 5L per half flush, 10L full flush
    Dishwasher: 25L per eco wash
    Washing: 120L per wash, front loader

    If you only use the dishwasher and washing machine once a week, that gives you a margin of 24L per person a day. That means you only have 1 min shower, 1 pee and 1 shit a day.

    Again either incorrectly low or very efficient.

    My guess is the meter guy mixed up the digits on the reading. eg wrote 36kL instead of 63kL

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join